Some of my key take aways from Thomas Davenport and D.J. Patil's 2012 Harvard Business Review article.

1. Data Scientist:
The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century
by: Thomas H. Davenport
and D.J. Patil

2. The rise of Big Data
http://www.csc.com/insights/flxwd/78931-big_data_universe_beginning_to_explode

3. The rise of Big Data
Long list of companies
now corral and analyze
Big Data to gain a
competitive advantage
Limitless applications:
Recommender systems
(people you know,
suggested reading),
Sentiment analysis,
pricing analysis, etc.

4. The rise of Big Data
Much of the rise is
due to the new tools
we have to play with

5. Case Study: LinkedIn
• Jonathan Goldman,
Ph.D, LinkedIn, 2006
• 8 million members
and growing, but
members not seeking
new connections as
expected
• Goldman given
autonomy to test data
product prototype
• Conversions up 30%

6. Supply Shortage
Interest over time: Data Scientist – Google
Trends
McKinsey Global Institute

7. Data Scientist Skills
Hard Skills
• Knowledge in Stats, Data
Mining, and Machine
Learning
• Open source tools such as R
and Python
• Data Visualization
• Data warehousing and
architecture
• Coding skills
Soft Skills
• Curiosity
• Storytelling
• Domain knowledge
• Problem Solving

8. How do businesses find applicants?
• Universities
• User Group Membership Lists
• Linkedin
• Technology Conference
• Venture Capitalist
• Host a Competition